"I (Jesus) am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
John 10:11

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Say Jibna (Cheese)

Last week several of our team members participated in a picture project. They took pictures of the children and then helped them make a frame to give to their parents. It must have been quite an experience for all involved. A couple of them tell about their experience below.

Last week’s photo project was fun and tiring, and although cutting things out of foam isn’t my forte, I got pretty good at making hearts and letters and Palestinian flags.

The project seemed simple enough: go to local school, take photos of all the children and teachers, and make frames for the photos. The first day taking the photos went fairly smoothly, although many children were absent due to some confusion about a national holiday. It was fun taking photos and hanging out with kids that day. The second day, making frames, was when the fun really started. Glue, scissors and lots of children is always an exciting combination. The stickers went fast, and in spite of our “one sticker per child” rule, I continued to notice frames with several stickers on them. Teachers tended to be particularly frustrating as we would assume they’d know better, and yet they persisted in defying our one-child-one-sticker rule, helpfully putting several stickers on a favorite child’s frame. Still, each day we learned how better to perfect our system, and we ended up making lots of new friends. In just a few days we helped hundreds of thousands of children…or maybe a little less…maybe just a couple of hundred…but I could swear that I cut out a hundred thousand little hearts.

While we were at the school, the principal told us that when we come and help them, they feel as if we are sharing their burden with them. I was able to tell him a little about the reason why we want to help bear their burdens. Another teacher at the school smiled for a picture that I took of him. He told me that he almost never smiles, but that “there is just something about you that makes me smile”. He is one of the teachers who invited us to dinner, so inshalla, I’ll will be able to talk more with him.